Bodybuilding Science Review - Issue #24

When you become very strong and muscular, you really have to shock your body into new gains.

You can do that with overreaching. Overreaching is when you work out too much for a short period of time. You build up fatigue. Then, when you finally allow your body to recover, it bounces back up and you become even stronger and more muscular.

The last study below (Hasegawa et al. 2015) is a good example of that strategy. They did 12 workouts in 12 days. Then, they took 6 days off, and BOOM! Their performance improved. Note that guys who took a day off after every 2 days of training did not improve their performance. Only the 12 workouts in 12 days guys did.

This study was done on bike sprints. But the same principle can be applied to lifting weights and building muscle. And we’ve already implemented it in Dr. Muscle. You’ll do it automatically, just by following the weights, reps, and sets advice you get from the app every time you work out.

We’re also about to improve that feature and make it even better at building you muscle. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Until then, in case you’ve missed last week’s newsletter, I’ve been interviewed by Pete Genot of RippedLabs:

“Cluster sets and rest-pause: CS/RP seems to be similar to traditional training for gaining strength and muscle mass. However, most studies have poor ecological validity (few of the training programs resembled “real life” programs). Cluster sets might be good for preventing form breakdown, reducing feelings of fatigue, and to build more volume with less discomfort.”

“Based on the data we have, I can subscribe to the authors’ own decision that "a push and pull non-synergist split routine [should be] recommended to maximize elbow flexor training performance (i.e. lower acute loading effect) in trained subjects”, but I would also like to point out that the increased total volume is probably only going to benefit you if you still allow for adequate rest of ideally 48h+ before you hammer your biceps (directly or indirectly) again.“

“It seems that the modified GVT program is no more effective than performing 5 sets per exercise for increasing muscle hypertrophy and strength. To maximize hypertrophic training effects it is recommended that 4-6 sets per exercise be performed, as it appears gains will plateau beyond this set range and may even regress due to overtraining.”